A wireless network, such as a cellular network, can include one or more access nodes each serving a number of end-user wireless devices or user equipment (UE) in a geographical area covered by the radio frequency transmissions of the access nodes. In some implementations, a wireless network may also include one or more relay nodes connected to an access node and configured to provide relay services to one or more end-user wireless devices that are indirectly connected to the access node through the relay nodes. Each of the relay nodes and end-user wireless devices may be associated with a preferred nodes list (e.g., a preferred donor cell list (or PDCL)), such that each of the relay nodes and end-user wireless devices may only connect to one of the nodes included in the preferred nodes list. In a conventional wireless network, the preferred nodes list is manually created and/or updated by an operator or user of a control server, such as a Universal Seamless Handoff Architecture (USHA) server. Manual updating is time consuming and inefficient, especially when there are a large number of relay nodes in the wireless network. Therefore, there is a need for systems and methods that are capable of automatically updating preferred nodes lists for wireless devices in a wireless network.